... but to secure, in perpetuity, a fraction of the national wealth to distribute to its personnel.

It was this Philistine potential -- that teaching the young for pay would inevitably expand into an institution for the protection of teachers, not students -- that made Socrates condemn the Sophists so strongly long ago in ancient Greece.

If this view of things troubles you, think of the New York City public school system, where I work, one of the largest business ...

... eat, too, and that takes some time - not much because they've lost the tradition of family dining - but if we allot 3 hours a week to evening meals we arrive at a net amount of private time for each child of 9 hours per week.

It's not enough, is it? The richer the kid, of course, the less television he or she watches, but the rich kid's time is just as narrowly prescribed by a somewhat broader catalogue of ...